Chapters 1-4

What is Educational Psychology?
Educational psychologists study how students learn.

How Will Learning About Educational Psychology Help You Be a Better Teacher?
-Teaching is complex work: it requires a wide range of knowledge & skills.
-Research in educational psychology offers many useful ideas for improving classroom instruction.
-Teachers who've had professional training are typically more effective than those who haven't.

The Nature and Values of Science
-Unsystematic observation may lead to false conclusions.
-Grade retention policies are influenced by such unsystematic observations.
-Scientific methods used include: sample, control, objectivity, publication, and replication.

Complicating Factors in the Study of Behavior and Thought Processes
-Research focuses on a few aspects of a problem.
-Complexity of teaching and learning limits uniform outcomes.
-Differences of opinion result from selection and interpretation of data.
-Accumulated knowledge leads researchers to revise original ideas.

Good Teaching is Partly an Art and Partly a Science
-Teaching an art: beliefs, emotions, flexibility, values.
-Research provides a scientific bases for "artistic" teaching.
-Effective teachers combine "artistic" and "scientific" characteristics.

Reflective Teaching: a Process to Help You Grow from Novice to Expert
-Reflective teachers think about why they do and why.
-Reflective teachers have particular attitudes and abilities.

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